Judge Sets Bail Despite Pleas In New `Date Rape Drug' Case

A woman pleaded with a Palm Beach County Court judge on Thursday not to release on bail the two men accused of drugging and raping her at a suburban Boca Raton nightclub.

"When I sleep I get flashbacks, I hear voices," the woman said amid tears. "I have not left the house since this happened. I don't know what they can do, I don't know who they know."

Detectives said the woman was doped up with the latest drug in the arsenal of rapists: gamma hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB.

Despite the woman's plea, Judge Nancy Perez set bail of $150,000 on each of the suspects: Gregg Alan Tippett, 34, a Boynton Beach travel agent, and Michael Joseph Hummel, 31, who works at a Delray Beach tile store.

The two men, charged with sexual assault of a helpless person, were freed on bail from the Palm Beach County Jail late Thursday. They will be restricted to house arrest and cannot have contact with the victim or with Club Boca, where the rape occurred.

Meanwhile, Palm Beach County Sheriff's detectives continue receiving calls from women who think they, too, might have fallen prey to one or the other of the suspects.

Since the men were arrested May 31, up to 12 women from as far south as Dade County have recognized the two men's pictures in news accounts and have contacted police saying they suspect something similar happened to them.

At the hearing, Palm Beach County sheriff's detective Kim Martin told a judge that two of the women positively identified Tippett.

"One was at a party and he gave her a margarita," Martin said. "The next thing she knew, she woke up in bed with him."

As detectives are finding out, GHB has taken an odyssey of its own.

It wasfirst used by body-builders who considered it a safe alternative to steroids to help them build muscle mass. It then became popular in South Florida's trendy night scene to induce a stupor-like high.

It is now fast becoming a rapist's best weapon.

"It's the cheapest, newest kind of mickey," said Palm Beach County toxicologist Tom Carroll of the "date rape" drugs GHB and Rohypnol, known as "roofies."

In fact, he said, GHB is "superior for that purpose" because it is hard to trace in the bloodstream.

"You have to test specifically for that drug," Carroll said.

Though chemically different, both roofies and GHB, known on the street as "grievous bodily harm," have figured in rape cases in which they are slipped into the drinks of unsuspecting women. Within minutes, the victims become lethargic or pass out, and their assailants rape them, leaving them with almost no memory of what happened.

Although detectives several years ago had run into GHB use among some people at Club Boca and other county nightclubs, it was then being used knowingly to produce highs.

But with the arrest of Tippett and Hummel, GHB has attracted their attention in a more nefarious way. The woman, a Canadian tourist, was raped in the parking lot of Club Boca in February after she had a drink laced with the drug, police said.

The two men were arrested last Friday in the case after a blood test developed by Carroll showed the woman had the drug in her system at the time.

Relatives and friends of both men packed the courtroom for Thursday's hearing, and Tippett's incredulous parents hurried away, saying women "throw themselves at him all the time."

Sgt. Tom Neighbors, who is investigating the case with Martin, said most of the possible victims he has talked to since Tippett and Hummel's arrests remember being with Tippett and then suddenly blacking out.

He said he's heard reports from people who knew Tippett that the GHB use and the sexual battery may have been going on for as long as ten years.

"We're getting some that are a couple of years old and others that are a couple of weeks old," Neighbors said.

Florida banned the drug in 1991 after people began showing up in hospitals with side effects ranging from nausea and vomiting to coma.

The substance is now illegal for sale here, though possessing it and using it is still unregulated.

Neighbors said GHB can continue to affect a person up to eight hours after taking it.